Stunning pictures of animals in the wild look just like they have been taken inside a photographer’s studio

From a pelican with its wings around its children, to a panda chomping on a bamboo stick to a cheetah gazing into the distance, the wild creatures look like they have struck a pose in a studio.

But all of the images were taken in the wild by Spanish photographer Pedro Jarque Krebs.

He spent hours on end photographing animals in nature reserves until they pulled the perfect face.

Pedro then manipulated the lighting and backgrounds to make it appear as if the animals had their very own studio shoot.

He said: ‘As you cannot always put a giraffe or an elephant in the studio, I decided to take the pictures of the animals in their environment, and work with them in postproduction to set them in a studio environment, obscuring the background.

‘The play of light and shadows will create the atmosphere necessary to approach the animals emotionally.’

Pedro takes hundreds of shots of each animal to get the perfect still, and while he never disturbs the animals, he says that on occasion he has come a bit too close for comfort.

‘I never interfere with the animal. Generally they do not know that they are being photographed, but sometimes they do not like it very much,’ he said.

‘Once a chimpanzee threw a stone at me and on another occasion a tiger threw itself against me, but fortunately there was a very thick glass separating us.

‘All the portraits are the fruits of patience, and in some cases of luck. The expressions they display are captured spontaneously.’

Pedro put three photographs together against a black background to create this sequence of a lion shaking its mane

Pedro’s subjects don’t always enjoy being photographed and this cheeky chimpanzee appears to be throwing a rude hand gesture at the camera in this funny shot

This tiger is one of the planet’s most fierce predators, but here he looks like a gentle giant as he takes a nap

Two kangaroos lie back to back, showing off their strong back legs and muscular tails as they relax together

A leopard and a black panther pose together in this picture, which has been created from shots of two big cats striking some very similar poses

A family of apes stand shoulder-to-shoulder in this picture, which has been created from a series of individual images

A mandrill holds its hand up menacingly to the camera in this shot – perhaps he was another subject who didn’t enjoy having his photograph taken

This panda bear looks like he is pretending to play the flute as he strikes a pose while chewing on a piece of bamboo

An antelope breastfeeds her baby in this intimate portrait of a mother with her young offspring